Wednesday, August 15, 2012

In honor of "Washing Wednesday" we though we would revist why it is important to use natural laundry wash in your home. Check out the blog post written a few months back...

Have you ever wondered what ingredients are used in your
laundry detergents? If you haven’t you should, just think at least 95% of your
day your body and the bodies of your family members are in contact with clothing
and linens that have been soaked in detergent. So what is in laundry detergents?
If you are using non-natural laundry detergents the ingredients contain
carcinogenic, hormone disruptors, and other hazardous air pollutants.

In a recent study by the University of Washington,
researchers found that 25 organic compounds including seven hazardous air
pollutants were released from laundry that was washed in non-natural detergent.
Two of the chemicals are listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of
cancer causing chemicals. If you are like me who runs at least 7 loads of
laundry a week you are freaking out! How does this happen? Well, laundry
companies are not required by law to list their ingredients. They also aren’t
regulated like other products because they are not applied directly to human
skin-even though we all know they are directly touching human skin constantly.

“Optical Brighteners” are used in non-natural laundry
detergents. These are synthetic chemicals that are used to make your clothes
“glow” under ultraviolet light. Your clothes look bright, but they are really
deteriorating. These brighteners are built to stay on your clothes; they build
up and prevent your cloth diapers from absorbing and your military uniforms glow
like the sun when looked at with night vision. They also rub off onto your skin causing a
rash that looks like a sun burn, and seep into waterways and build up inside
fish.

Phosphates are often found in non-natural detergents.
These phosphates work as a super-charged
fertilizer for algae in your washing machine-ever have stinky towels? Chances
are it is due to algae growing in your washer. If you use these products they
can build up in your washer in your tubes, in the pump, in the door seal! Just
about everywhere! If it isn’t cleaned up your stinking clothing will have to be
tossed and so will your washer.

All of these chemicals find their way into the
environment and end up in the water that we drink, the soil where our veggies
are growing and into the animals that we eat. They are also constantly being
released into the air from your dryer vents and finding their way into our
atmosphere.

So now that we
know how bad laundry products can be what do we do? First, check your detergents
ingredients. If it contains benzene and acetaldehyde dispose of it with your
other hazardous materials, these two chemicals are cancer causing. If it contains optical brighteners or
phosphates give it the old heave-ho! If you can’t find a list of ingredients for
your laundry detergent that should be a red flag, they have a reason for not
showing you what it is made of. The easiest solution is to find yourself a
natural laundry detergent, specifically one that isn’t afraid to tell you what
it is made of. The University of Washington recommends that you don’t use more
detergent than you need. Most of the time you are just washing sweat and
fragrance out of your clothes, this shouldn’t require a ton of detergent. They
also say to, “Wash only full loads of laundry and with cold water. Making the
switch to the cold cycle will save about $60 a year on your power bill because
you'll be giving the hot water heater a break."

If you are interested in making the change to natural
laundry detergent (and I think you should) check out http://www.ahappygreenlife.com/ and
our new laundry wash line that is safe for your clothes and
skin!-Amanda

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Earlier this week a customer asked us if A Happy Green Life
laundry wash was safe to use with graywater. Kristin and I were very proud to
be able to say yes! The more we thought about the concept of graywater the more
we wanted to share it with you guys.

Graywater system

Graywater is any washwater that has been used in the home,
except water from toilets. Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise
50-80% of residential "waste" water. This may be reused for other
purposes, especially landscape irrigation (Some states do not include kitchen
sink water or diaper wash water-these are called dark gray water and are not
used).

Some of you know that I study environmental studies in
school, and that my area of expertise is in sustainable living and urban
development. Graywater plays a huge role in the development of sustainable
communities, it is a way for the average household to reuse their wastewater or
capture their rainwater and make it work for them. It is an amazing way to
conserve one of our most precious resources.

example of gutter barrel to catch rain

There are systems available today to be installed in your
home if you are willing to put up the money, for those of us who don’t necessarily
have the cash on hand to install such a cool system you can do it the old
fashion way. Use a bucket or cup to transfer your water to your plants, we have
friends who keep a bucket nice and handy by the shower to capture all the water
and use it to feed their garden. If you have a trash can you can attach
it to your gutters and create a gutter barrel to catch your rain water! Check out the link below for a
tutorial on how to build this!!

And remember that all A Happy Green Life products are safe for you and the planet and are great for graywater use!!

Friday, August 3, 2012

If you havent noticed yet, we here at A Happy Green Life like food, and we love it to be fresh from the garden. We have had fans in the past ask us where the best place is to start when you plan on making a garden. I asked myself this same question when we started our mini urban farm, and I turned to this months book How to Grow Your Own Food: A Guide for Beginers by John Clift and Amanda Cuthbert.

This great book will give you all the information you need to start your own garden, reagrdless of your location.

"Taking into account the limited space available to the urban gardener, Clift
and Cuthbert have produced a tome that's perfect for the inner city
horticulturalist. Growing fruit and vegetables is a big subject, and squeezing
even a small selection of plants into such a small volume is no easy task.
Happily the authors have done a good job of deciding what should go in, and what
really had to be left out. For complete novices, this book is a helpful,
unthreatening guide to their first few seasons as a gardener, whether they have
a balcony, bare concrete, a patio or a larger patch of ground. It's not for
committed gardeners but if you're looking for some measure of
self-sustainability and aren't quite sure how to go about it, How to Grow Your
Food: A Guide for Complete Beginners is an invaluable resource."

I am very excited to share this book with you, so excited in fact, A Happy Green Life has gotten an extra copy to share with one of our lucky readers! Enter today to win a copy of this amazing book!

1. Bamboo Palm: According to NASA, it removes formaldahyde and is also said to act as a natural humidifier.

2. Snake Plant: Found by NASA to absorb nitrogen oxides and formaldahyde.
3. Areca Palm: One of the best air purifying plants for general air cleanliness.

4. Spider Plant: Great indoor plant for removing carbon monoxide and other toxins or impurities. Spider plants are one of three plants NASA deems best at removing formaldahyde from the air.

5. Peace Lily: Peace lilies could be called the “clean-all.” They’re often placed in bathrooms or laundry rooms because they’re known for removing mold spores. Also know to remove formaldahyde and trichloroethylene.

6. Gerbera Daisy: Not only do these gorgeous flowers remove benzene from the air, they’re known to improve sleep by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off more oxygen over night.

A Happy Green Life Links

a happy green life philosphy

This is our journey to live a happy green life. We are sharing the things we learn along the way that will make it easier to save the planet and save us money. Making one green decision everyday will open our eyes to other ways we can be better at living a happy green life.

Are you living A Happy Green Life?

Grab our button!

search a happy green life blog

There was an error in this gadget

The Ward Family

Kristin has a degreein Anthropology from California State University, Sacramento. She worked forNordstrom for 8 years working in various stores across the country, as adepartment manager and later a regional manager for the North East Region. Shehas been married to her husband, Michael, since 2007 and they had their firstchild, Jayden, in 2009. After having Jayden, Kristin decided to be a stay athome mom. After deciding to stay at home with Jayden, she felt her entrepreneurialspirit beckon and began looking for ways to help make money for theirfamily. She opened a cloth diapercompany called diapeze, and she made cloth diapers and other eco-friendly productsfor three years. Living a green lifebecame a passion for her, and she soon found other products that she wanted tomake and offer to other green families.With the help of a friend, A Happy Green Life was started. After a year, Kristin became the sole ownerand operator of A Happy Green Life. Sheis continually pursuing new ideas for green products to offer to A Happy GreenLife customers!

About Chef Mike

Mike Ward is currently the Executive Chef of El Paseo Restaurant in Mill Valley. For the past 15 years he has cooked professionally in restaurants across the country. He started cooking in a small bar and grill and soon realized he wanted to know what my options in this industry were. He jumped around restaurants in Northern California for 6-7 years, always looking for what felt right. In 2007, his wife Kristinwas presented with an opportunity to move to Boston for her job. He was excited to expand his abilities and knowledge of cooking. He had the great fortune to work for some of the best chefs in the country while living on the east coast, including Tony Maws, Frank McClelland’s New France Corporation and Terrance Brennan. He soon realized the beauty of using all natural, locally grown product, not only for the better flavor of the product, but also because of the impact on the environment, your local economy and your health. He is excited to share his insight on ways to be more green in your home and restaurant kitchen too.